Posts from Wednesday May 30 2012

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

Risk was very much off for US stocks on Wednesday. The S&P 500 closed down 1.43 per cent at 1,313. The S&P has lost almost 6 per cent in May, making the month its worst since September (Reuters). The euro fell to its lowest level in nearly two years against the dollar, dropping under $1.24 (Bloomberg). Read more

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

You know things are tricky when your energy options are Iran, Glencore or blackouts, and then the Iran option is removed.

We’ve known for while that Greece’s reliance on Iranian oil has put it in a difficult situation, at time when banks are pulling letters of credit and Iran sanctions bite. This was an early sign of creditors’ fear of drachma exposure. Read more

So, Bankia is in trouble and no one seems to know what is going on. First, the FT said that:

A Spanish plan to recapitalise Bankia, the troubled lender, by indirectly tapping the European Central Bank for cash, was bluntly rejected as unacceptable by the ECB, European officials said. Read more

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

With the news being all eurozone-eurozone-China-eurozone of late (at least, in our world), interactions between the two — who happen to be massive trading partners — have produced some interesting stories. Which are probably best illustrated with cats and animated gifs.

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Spain’s government has been left looking increasingly desperate/reckless/ineffective by its plans to rescue Bankia, as today’s FT describes:

Mr Rajoy and his government are facing growing domestic criticism over repeated errors of strategy and communication, which that have given an impression that Madrid has run out of ideas on how to handle its financial and economic crises. Read more

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Nomura’s Richard Koo is kinda with Christine Lagarde when it comes to the Greek tax problem.

But eurozone bonds (aka eurobonds) are not the solution, he says. Firstly, Greece needs to address its mutual distrust problem with Germany, and persuade the Germans that it will get serious about this tax collection thing: Read more

Contrary to media reports published today, the European Central Bank (ECB) has not been consulted and has not expressed a position on plans by the Spanish authorities to recapitalise a major Spanish bank. The ECB stands ready to give advice on the development of such plans. Read more

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

The ECB has rejected Spain’s plan for Bankia, telling Madrid that it would be in danger of breaching an EU ban on “monetary financing”, says the FT, citing two European officials.

A top Obama administration official was dispatched to Europe on Tuesday, reports the WSJ, to press eurozone officials for changes such as broadening the rescue funds and allowing them to directly recapitalise banks. The Treasury Department’s under secretary for international affairs, Lael Brainard, met Greece’s interim finance minister on Tuesday and will be in Frankfurt today. Read more

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index lost 0.7 per cent with Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average off 0.7 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi Composite index down 0.8 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index 1 per cent lower. Read more